As the world becomes increasingly connected and mobile, people travel frequently from one part of the world to another. In the process they might carry germs of communicable diseases with them affecting other people who come in their contact. With recent outbreaks of epidemics like Ebola, which caused a wide-spread panic with strict travel restrictions to and from countries identified as high risk by WHO for communicable diseases, such as Guinea and Sierra Leone, it becomes increasingly necessary to identify people who may have been affected with a communicable disease requiring immediate attention or could be on the verge of falling sick. Usually a simple yet reliable indicator of many communicable diseases is fever. However, it often goes unnoticed till the body temperature gets really high indicating significant spread of disease. If this change in temperature can be identified quickly, preferably at the onset, it ma help in faster response in terms of initiating countermeasures which in turn may result in faster recovery of the patient as well as more effective containment of the spread of the disease.
Similar requirement exists in the ‘high risk’ countries, many of these on the African continent, where not just the local population but people involved in the relief efforts are also always at high risk due to being in constant contact with potential patients. What complicates the problem further is lack of power sources which makes it extremely difficult to use sophisticated machines for detection, especially in rural areas where most of the potentially affected population lives. Even using battery-operated portable devices often prove difficult due to the need of frequent replacements. In many areas even procuring new batteries may prove difficult.
Apart from the issue of power, another issue which makes operating these systems difficult in these areas is the storage (protection from rain, sunlight, etc.) and regular maintenance requirements as procuring new parts and availing qualified repair services is again difficult and costly. Even storing and travelling with simple, mercury-based glass thermometers may prove difficult for the relief personnel as these are quite susceptible to shocks and can easily break releasing toxic mercury which in turn can pose health hazards.
Clearly, there is a requirement for a device which is low-maintenance, durable, doesn't need power to operate, can be used with minimal training and should be easy to carry around and store. Such as device should be useful to the relief personnel to keep an eye on their temperature while working in the affected areas and should allow them to use the same device with potential patients, as a backup to the existing devices being used in the field. The present invention provides such a device with the aforementioned features.
All the advantages and features of the present invention will be set forth in the description which follows, and will become apparent to those skilled in the art upon examination of the following, or may be learned by practice of the invention. These advantages and features of the present invention will be more readily apparent when considered in reference to the following description and when taken in conjunction with the drawings below.